Hi everyone,

A quick update -- for those interested to learn more about the sanitation landscape in Monrovia, we received permission to share the original market research report conducted by Hope Consulting last year. Attached!

Best,
Genevieve

Thanks Jonathan, we can discuss further over email. Seems like a great opportunity for us to share our lessons learned.

Just in case anyone else is interested, I'm working on getting permission to share more broadly the market landscape report by Hope Consulting. (It was originally slated as internal-only.)

Best,
Genevieve

Dear Genevieve / John,

I am heading out to Liberia for Oxfam GB to support the Liberia WASH Consortium to design a sustainable market based management model and business plan for communal wash facilities and for public toilets in Monrovia. This forms part of a EU funded Improved Sanitation and Hygiene Project in Monrovia. There is a good chance that you will have met some of my colleagues when you were working in Monrovia last year. I was involved on a similar activity in Freetown where GOAL/IWA worked to support Freetown City Council prepare a similar proposal to BMGF.

I see the proposed model in your proposal to BMGF involved privately-owned and operated community-based toilets with a focus on quality and customer service and a network of entrepreneurs. I don't want to be "reinventing any wheels" - so it would be good if we could have a discussion about how the WASH Consortium may learn from your project proposal and based on this, consider opportunities to incorporate elements of your proposal in the implementation of the EU funded project.

best regards,

Jonathan

Jonathan Parkinson
Senior WASH Programme Development Strategist - Oxfam GB
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. skype: jonathan_oxfamgb
Home office: + 44 20 300 48528 (voicemail redirected via email)
Mobile: + 44 79 140 129 81

Hi everyone,

Please find below the introduction of PSI's 6-month research project for Phase I of the BMGF-funded City Partnerships program. While we were not successful in winning funding for Phase II, I thought I'd share the project details and the proposed models.

• Title of grant: Using performance-based contracting to build a pay-for-use sanitation market in Monrovia, Liberia
• Name of lead organization: Population Services International (PSI)
• Primary contact at lead organization: John Sauer, Senior Technical Advisor, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Genevieve Kelly, WASH Coordinator, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Grantee location: Washington, DC
• Developing country where the research is being tested: Liberia
• Start and end date: Mar 2014-Sep 2014
• Grant type: City Partnerships (co-funded by DFID)
• Grant size in USD: $149,059
• Funding for this research currently ongoing: no

Project Description:
Population Services International (PSI) and Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) conducted in-depth landscape research to better understand the market system for sanitation and what conditions exist in the system to stimulate private sector performance, including public sector support. With the support of Hope Consulting, PSI conducted an analysis of the roles, opportunities, and challenges facing various actors (suppliers, influencers, financiers, etc.) in the market. Research findings were used to design a commercially viable business model for pay-for-use shared sanitation and emptying and transportation of faecal sludge. The model was designed to leverage the efforts by the MCC building their planning to design and build a sewage treatment plant for faecal sludge treatment and eventual reuse for agricultural purposes. Particular emphasis was placed on consumers, specifically women, who are most at risk from lack of safe sanitation access. PSI used the landscape results to identify ways to create an enabling environment for sanitation to ensure sustainable and equitable provision of sanitation services, increased availability of options for faecal sludge disposal, and improvements in the policy and regulatory frameworks that support improvements to urban sanitation.

Goal:
Generate evidence that informs the design of public private partnerships throughout the sanitation value chain

Objectives:
1. Produce publishable studies that analyze the specific opportunities for private sector providers at all points in the sanitation value chain and that assess consumer willingness to pay for those services
2. Develop a full proposal that details the interventions, including the process of development, evaluation and implementation of business models, which will be used to coordinate supply and demand, allocate responsibilities for the variety of actors involved in the sanitation value chain, identify incentives to improve private provider performance (i.e. safe disposal of fecal sludge), and leverage new market opportunities and sanitation technologies

Research or Implementation Partners:
Monrovia City Corporation, Hope Consulting (hopeconsulting.us, San Francisco, USA)

Links, further readings, results to date:
Documents in SuSanA library:
www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/2222


Current State of Affairs:
Phase One, described above, is now complete, and PSI did not receive follow-on funding for implementation of its proposed models, in Phase II. The need for sanitation, particularly in urban areas, remains dire, however. The 2014 outbreak of Ebola exposed major inadequacies in Monrovia’s sanitation access as well as a lack of public services provided by the government.

What was Accomplished:
PSI and the MCC were able to gain a very deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges for urban sanitation business models in Monrovia, and remain committed to find ways to start activities. Based on a costing analysis, it was determined that single unit, public toilets are the most financially viable for Monrovia slums, as opposed to shared household sanitation facilities or multiple-toilet blocks. This was largely due to the low capital costs required for a non-permanent structure and the opportunity to offset costs with payments for use. FSM would be conducted using a hub and spoke model of central collecting areas that are then emptied by vacuum trucks for transport to the MCC treatment plant.

Main Challenges:
During the research implementation there was an outbreak of Ebola, which required the full attention of the Monrovia City Corporation. The MCC was understandably unavailable for co-creation of the Phase II concept, and furthermore the outbreak of the disease dramatically impacted the government’s capacity to implement. Lastly, the PSI team was evacuated during this period, which put project activities on hold.